January 9, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



39 



differ in its effects from that of the rattlesnake, 

 a view also maintained by Dr. Mitchell. The cure 

 by means of injecting permanganate of soda into the 

 bite has been subjected to further experiments by 

 Dr. Lacerda. These prove that the injection must be 

 fresh, and done immediately, and would be of no avail 

 if the bite had penetrated an artery; also the injection 

 must be made frequently, and all round the bite. He 

 has already cured several cases of snake-bite thereby. 



— The Russian geographical society has received a 

 report from its member, M. A. Y. Adrianof, who is 

 travelling in the Altai and Sayan ranges. After 

 traversing the Shapshalka Pass, he followed the 

 course of the river Kemtsik, a branch or tributary 

 of the Ulu Kem. In these regions he met with only 

 a few Russian traders, but found a colony of Russian 

 dissenters, who settled near the Chinese frontier in the 

 time of the Patriarch Nikon, and placed the whole of 

 their joint property under the uncontrolled adminis- 

 tration of their leader, forming themselves into a 

 kind of commune. Their occupations are agriculture 

 and hunting. The native population which surround 

 them manufacture a sort of felt, and have learned 

 to weave a tissue of wild hemp. They prepare an 

 intoxicating drink from milk, which they consume 

 in notable quantity. These peoples who live in the 

 basin of the river Kemtsik are Sayanians, or Sayantsi. 

 They display a remarkable capacity for mixing with 

 neighboring races without being merged, — a process 

 which, however, succeeds better with Turanian and 

 Finnic than with Mongolian tribes. There exist 

 some important and interesting monuments of the 

 past among these Sayanians, who are also known 

 under the appellation ' Tuiba,' in their burying-places. 

 These are either marked by conical cairns, or are flat 

 areas surrounded by a circular row of stones, which 

 are sometimes plain, but often covered with figures 

 and inscriptions, and bear in some instances rude 

 representations of the human figure. Remains of 

 sacrifices, generally of a horse, are found near the 

 tombs. 



— The Russian explorer, Col. Prjevalski, spent 

 last summer in exploring the plateau lakes of Thibet. 

 The height of those at the source of the Yellow 

 River he estimates at 13,500 feet, and those of the 

 plateau at a thousand feet more. The climate he 

 describes as detestable, cold, snow or rain, the whole 

 summer through. The quantity of rainfall brought 

 from the Indian Ocean by the south-west monsoon is 

 so great that all summer the north of Thibet is one 

 great swamp. Fish and quadrupeds are numerous, 

 birds rare, the flora poor but peculiar. Prjevalski's 

 party was twice attacked by robbers, whom they suc- 

 cessfully repulsed. He means to continue his explo- 

 rations. 



— About ten per cent of the plants collected in the 

 north-western Mexican states by recent collectors 

 prove to be new species. 



— Prof. David S. Jordan has been appointed presi- 

 dent of the Indiana university. 



— J. Miiller, a German mining engineer, has applied 

 electrolysis to the rectification of light coins. The 



practice obtains of reducing the weight of over-heavy 

 coins by dissolving off some of the metal with acid; 

 but in Germany, at least, no attempt has hitherto 

 been made to add metal to the coin by electro-deposi- 

 tion in order to bring it up to its proper weight. The 

 method answers well for small losses of weight, be- 

 cause the metal added in that case does not deface the 

 characters on the coin. 



— The Alhenaeum states that the government of 

 Siam is about to take steps for the opening of the 

 interior of its fertile territory. With this object, an 

 expedition for survey and exploration will shortly set 

 out for Kabin, where there are said to be mines of con- 

 siderable value. The idea is to connect this place 

 with Bangkok by a railway, which would be ulti- 

 mately carried on to Karat, Sohai, and Phitsalok. 

 By this means Zimmay and the fertile region of Laos 

 would be brought within convenient distance of the 

 sea. 



— The naturalist, Groum Grzhimailo, has returned 

 from eastern Turkestan, where, during the past spring 

 and summer, his expedition was mainly employed in 

 investigating the zoology of the country. He has col- 

 lected seventeen thousand specimens of lepidopterous 

 insects, of which a large number are of hitherto un- 

 known species. The altitudes of many mountains 

 were taken, and thermometrical readings registered 

 throughout the journey. The general observations of 

 Grzhimailo tend towards an affirmative solution of the 

 contested question of a glacial period in central Asia. 

 He reports the existence, on Thian-Shan Mountain, of 

 forms which up to now had been found only in North 

 America, Lapland, and the Swiss Alps. This explorer 

 proposes to start next year from Samarkand in order 

 to pursue his researches on the western spurs of the 

 Thian-Shan range, which have not as yet been the 

 object of zoological investigation. 



— Mr. Edwin Guthrie has published a pamphlet on 

 the development of the art of numeration, in which 

 he has brought together in a condensed form a very 

 considerable amount of information on a most inter- 

 esting subject. The pamphlet includes a table of the 

 Assyrian, Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Roman, and 

 Arabic systems of notation. 



— The ninth volume of the Ornithologist and oolor/ist 

 forms a large octavo volume of a hundred and fifty-two 

 pages, and, as regards both quality of matter and liter- 

 ary execution, is greatly superior to any of its prede- 

 cessors. It consists wholly of original matter, and con- 

 tains very little trash, and a large amount of valuable 

 information, particularly about the nesting-habits of 

 little-known species. It is carefully printed on heavy 

 paper, is creditable to its new publisher and editor, 

 and has a fair claim upon the attention of the orni- 

 thologist as well as the non-scientific bird-lover. 



— Clermont Ganneau is publishing a book entitled 

 * Les fraudes archeologiques en Palestine ' (Paris, 

 Ernest Leroux). This volume, illustrated with nu- 

 merous engravings, contains a full account of the false 

 Moabite potteries at Berlin, of the celebrated Shapira 

 Deuteronomy, and of different spurious monuments 

 of Palestine and Phoenicia. 



